


Miss

by crownhearted



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 17:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11406966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownhearted/pseuds/crownhearted





	Miss

Poppy remembered what it was like to grieve.

A life on the road was not one she could have ever been truly prepared for. She had little exposure to the world beyond her comparatively minuscule village full of friends and family- and being thrust so suddenly into the ruthless maw of mother Gaia and all her agents was enough of a trial. The added impact that a variety of beings had on her was severe, and by the time a year had passed, she was not the girl who left her home and family with big, bright eyes; she was someone far more understanding of the ways of the world.

She sold wares, things beyond fabrics as she moved around from place to place. She reveled in the natural wonders she encountered and drank up the history of each town and kingdom and tribe, she had her breath stolen by campfire myths and the kindness of strangers willing to house her in terrible storms when makeshift shelters weren't enough. Poppy traveled, and lived, and saw the beauty of nature and nurture at work first hand.

Shortly thereafter, she saw the hideousness of it, too.

Just as her heart was taken hostage by rolling meadows full of flowers, so were her wares. Bandits, thievers and brutes came upon her with a startling frequency; one wrong turn made the world bleak and ravaged by selfishness, greed, and bloodlust. To make it through these spaces, Poppy bartered; her baubles and trinkets for safe passage, her most beautiful fabrics for a book of magic essential to her continued survival in such empty wastes.

As time went on, she found little to cling to. She had been easily tricked and deceived out of many valuables, some beyond her capacity to understand. In desperation, backed into a corner with no shelter on a hot, dry night in a terrible area, she agreed to live and clean the home of a thief. She worked hard, earned her keep for just that one evening- but in it, as the hours burned by the dim light of a dying fire, she found her face pulled into a smile for the first time in a long time.

Poppy fell in love with a thief.

She needed time to earn more money or collect more goods to re-sell. She decided to stay with this man- an elf downcast, scorned by his family in what she believed to be a similar way to her own- and wait. Biding her time, they spent months together, and she learned that survival was a lot less black and white than she had been lead to believe.

She had never been above bartering and dealing with criminals before; turning a blind eye to the deeds and scars of one's past was essential if she wanted to make it on her own in the world as a merchant. But living in these slums gave her fresh and renewed perspective on just what, exactly, the extent of the greed in this world was.

Late into the winter, she was exchanging a magical artifact for a large sum of money with a dwarf that had once been a war criminal. She ignored the patch over his eye and the poorly-veiled insinuation of his interest in her. She made the trade, simple and quick, in the dark of night, as most deals were done here. But just as she was to part, the dwarf attempted to rob her. 

She new what to do in these situations, but as the dwarf waited for her to turn out her satchel and give over all her valuables, the thief she lived with came upon them. Poppy, relieved to have backup, relaxed only to find out that this was not a rescue mission. The elf made no move to stop the dwarf from cutting a thin line down Poppy's arm in threat for her slowed movements, and as she cried for help, her love seemed unsympathetic. He owed this dwarf a marginal sum of money, and supposedly, he promised it in the form of Poppy; her indentured servitude, and all of her belongings, for a lifetime free of this debt. He would be able to leave the poor wastes at last, and the dwarf would no longer be hunting him for his payment.

This was her first brush with true, cruel heartbreak.

Of course, the halfling did not obey, and did not become a servant, and would move out of the slums with no attachments and quite a lot of valuable items and a reasonable sum of gold to her name. She would escape this treacherous place and its villains. She would move out of the shadows and into the light once again, but she would always remember that the love for gold outweighed the love for her.

The time spent in this place encouraged her to stop avoiding the dark places, to be less frightened of the risks of darkness and to be more diligent in her practice of a magic art she already enjoyed. More than once she knew how to put what she learned to use. She did not meddle in affairs of her clients and she did not fall in love with criminals. She did not stand up to those with power, or money, or fame, lest she be struck down for her courage. She stayed quiet, and smiling, and docile.

Poppy collected her money, bowed her head, and left the vulnerable and weak to their fates, lest she become one of them. It made her stronger each time she looked pointedly away from a client's violence against an innocent bystander or a suspicious set of words from their gnarled lips and teeth indicating that they were going to use her goods or her money for nefarious purposes. Poppy didn't save many, but she saved herself, and lived to fight another day.

And one of those days, she was most pleased she had survived to see: the thieving elf had died.

She did not mourn.  
And that was when Miss was born.


End file.
